Dave
, VA3MRJ , opens the meeting and asks all in attendance to introduce
themselves. (Scribe for the evening was Gary, VE3JGK)

A
special thank-you to Bruce , VE3WBX , who is the new ‘coffee person’ .

Larry
, VE3LGN, announces that there will be no packet meeting this month and to
watch the bulletin for the notice of next month’s meeting .

Dave
reminds us that the financial statement is in the bulletin and on the web
. No tech report this month since the chair is in Florida

Ben ,
VA3BNY , informs us the next months meeting will be especially interesting
with the topic of Solar and Wind generation by Weasel who is also a
aviation technician . The topics for the May and June meeting are a
‘work in progress’ .

Ben
starts the show and tell portion of the meting with Roger , VE3RKS showing
us a “Basic Stamp repeater controller” which is very small and simple
to build . It is capable of doing the time-outs and ident for a repeater .
He also showed the front panel of a Pioneer car stereo , pointing out how
most of the workings are in the removable faceplate .

Next
was Fraser , VE3FC , who showed us 2 J-Pole antennas . One for 2m and the
other for 440 .He provided a excellent explanation of antenna impedance
and how one can side mount the 2m antenna to a tower .

Next
was Gord , VE3EOS , who showed us a remote motor controller for a hf tuner
. The result is a very low SWR of less than 1.05 to 1 .

Next
was Paul , VE3SY , who described 3 different digital modes that can be
operated using a computer’s sound card and the appropriate software.
They were , PSK31 , RTTY , and Feld-Hell . The latter of which is a older
technology but still very capable of getting through . A unique feature of
this mode is that with a poorer signal , the letter fade but aren’t
easily ‘dropped’ . PSK31 is a very sensitive mode using a 31 Hz shift
with 8 levels ,that can distinguish 2 signals at S9 that are only 50Hz
apart . It’s speed exceeds that of RTTY and used to use a 850Hz shift .
Several documents taken from the web were available to elaborate on these
and the URL’s were listed .

Next
was Bill , VE3ETK , who showed us his home brew , easy to disassemble 20m
antenna made from CB parts . The only addition was a length of pipe to
bring it into tune .

Next
Dennis , VA3DLT , who had a mystery box from 1944 . It turned out to be a
frequency meter in very good condition . He obtained it from his
father-in-law , VE2FOR.

Next
was Dave again who described his ‘new’ ICOM ICT8A withcloning cable . It was wide receive ( the classic DC-light ! ) ,
alphanumeric display and wit the cable you can program it from your PC .

Next
Ben showed us 2 screwdriver antenna for mobile Hf . One of which he was
modifying from a manual to motor drive adjustment .He still needs to make
the motor enclosure and could use a lathe to turn a few parts . By the end
of the meeting , I think he lined up a helpful ham . Once set up , he
claimed you can get very close in SWR just by listening to the noise level
.

Ben
announced free coffee to the presenters .

Paul
announced the Don , VE3ESE and Greg , VE3NXB , are in Cuba and doing very
well in the contest . Paul worked them 40m mobile. They can be found nightly on 7064.5 or 14120 .